Cursed to do Nothing
by Elizabeth0058
Summary: Time shifts and turns as destiny veers in strange ways. But Death is always the ending. Nothing can escape its gaze as it watches and takes. And being cursed to watch but unable to do anything to help is Harry's greatest curse. One-Shot.


Harry looked at the flames that were slowly consuming the body of the man, green eyes hidden beneath his black hood. Even though the orange light from the flames should have lit his face, it remained inexplicably in shadow. In fact, had anyone been able to see him, he would have appeared to be a mere shadow himself.

He had died a long, long time ago in a fight with another wizard, with himself bodily blocking a spell from killing one of the men that was a new Auror. He had countered with one that had taken the other wizard's life even as his own seeped from his body. His shock had risen when he had woken up to the call of something that was dragging him towards somewhere, only to find a dying man at the end of his trip. His surprise had only risen when something urged him to brush his fingers against the man's arm and, with a shuddering breath, the man's chest stopped moving and something drifted from the man's body.

This happened a few more times, each one preceded by a strong pull from the core of his being where his magic was. Each time yielded the same result, and he discovered that no one could interact with him. It did not take Harry long to realize that this calling was from his new title, the Master of Death, but only after Death had personally visited him.

The meeting had not been pleasant as his duties to guide as many souls as he could to the afterlife was revealed.

To say Harry had been annoyed was an understatement.

But he did his job.

The years passed until centuries had flown by, and the Earth changed, progression even taking humans off of their home planet and into the far reaches of the stars. He saw his friends, their children, and their children's children pass along with millions of other lives. He saw wizards get integrated into Muggle society a good five hundred years after he began his new job. He discovered that as humans spread throughout the universe discovering and interacting with new species in a peaceful way that they would not have done when he was alive—what, 2,000 years prior to their exploration? He couldn't quite remember—that his own domain was not limited to Earth.

His heart ached for a time when his life was simple as he helped to guide many different races of sentients from the land of the living to the dead.

The fact that he still had emotions amazed even him as he should have lost all feeling from his lack of contact.

He put it down to magic.

Apparently, magic wasn't just limited to Earth and was an energy that was present throughout the entire universe. It was just that humans had discovered that some people had the ability to harness it. And there were select others across the universe that came to discover the ability as humans began to do the thing they did best besides destroy. They spread.

He had found amusement in the fact that by the time wizards worked with muggles to travel throughout the stars that they had basically given up on wands. Instead, they had resulted to a strange alteration of wandless magic that was far more potent in sheer power in bursts than that done with wands even if it had less versatility than that done with a wand along with the potency. The only reason that this wandless magic was used had to due with the fact that, for some reason, it did not terribly affect machinery.

He had been even more amused when the being from other planets gave magic new named.

The Force.

He watched as the ability of the Force was spread throughout the galaxy, being taught to any being that could tap into the energy of the universe. A thousand years after the initial voyage of humans met other "aliens", he watched those that could wield the Force form a group known as Jedi, a group that aimed to use their ability to help people. He watched the very first Dark Lord of the Force rise and fall with great cost, new rules being set in place by the Jedi Order to ty and prevent others from falling to the Dark side.

And he had seen, a good seven hundred years after the first Dark Lord of the Force, the next Awakening of Darkness.

Which is what had led him to where he was.

Without a care, he stepped into the flames, a hand lifting up to hover over the chest of the dead man being cremated. The flames licked through his form insubstantially, ignoring his ghostly being in favor of tangible things to consume. With barely a thought, he reached with his magic and gently guided the man's soul from his body to release it.

Green eyes followed the silvery trail as it slowly evaporated against the night sky to drop to the boy that was watching the flames with a forcibly blank expression. His eyes were lidded, as if to prevent the light from the fire to burn away any of his night vision. But Harry knew the expression of grief from having seen thousands of forms of it in his long existence that was near 4,000 Earth years if he figured his right.

He could feel the Force/Magic within the boy, a strength to it that did not fit with the child. Pressing at the energy of the universe, Harry sought out the boy's destiny and found a sad smile gracing his face in response. He could sense the grief that would tear at the boy's heart throughout most of his life, as well as the way he would pass. He sensed the way he would be light only to fall to rise once more in the very end.

"You have a life full of strife set before you." Harry said, gently projecting his intent to the boy through the Magic/Force that was everywhere. "But you will find your way in the end."

For the smallest of seconds, blue eyes seemed to lock on Harry. Then their gaze slid right through the Master of Death, dropping back to the body of the Jedi Knight. Shoulders hunched slightly in response, earning a grim feeling through Harry as he stepped from the fire.

"I wish you the best of luck throughout your life, even if I don't think it will help you. Prophecies will always find a way to come true no matter how much one wants to fight them." Harry suddenly swept his cloak around him in a whisk of black shadows, a pull centered in his being telling him he had to move on. Yet, before he was gone, he said, "Either way, good luck, Anakin Skywalker."

* * *

 **A.N.:** No idea where this came from, but it popped into my head and I just had to write this peek into this Alternate Universe. Not planning taking it further unless I want to make it a two-shot. Also, if there are any mistakes that I missed, it would be appreciated if someone pointed them out. You miss your own mistakes easily, so you readers might find one or two that I missed.


End file.
